San Francisco lures entrepreneurs to public sector

The mayor of San Francisco has announced the launch of a program to bring entrepreneurs to the public sector.

In an announcement, Mayor Edwin M. Lee, in collaboration with the White House, has invited entrepreneurs to develop technology-enabled products and services for the U.S. government.

The new scheme, dubbed San Francisco's Entrepreneurship-in-Residence (EIR) program, is aimed at producing solutions for the $142 billion public sector market. It is hoped that entrepreneurial products and services developed through EIR will drive increased revenue, enhanced productivity and meaningful cost savings for the governmental bodies.

Mayor Ed Lee said:

"We need the top entrepreneurs to work with us on opportunities that are actual pain points and needs of government. San Francisco's EIR program advances our role and vision as the innovation capital of the world."

San Francisco officials say that they hope to attract "world-class entrepreneurs and technologists" by providing them with government support, access to government needs and opportunities, staff and their expertise, as well as insights into future business opportunities based on the city and beyond.

"Products and services that successfully solve issues faced by San Francisco can easily expand to addressing similar needs of other cities and states across the nation in addition to the private sector," said Rahul Mewawalla, leader of the program. "We expect to drive significant innovation and growth in areas of pressing importance such as data, mobile and cloud services, healthcare, education, transportation, energy and infrastructure."

Once entrepreneurial teams enter the scheme, mentors will be assigned from both the public and private sector. The program will select three to five teams to help them develop their proposed products and announce the selected teams in early October, during San Francisco's Innovation Month.

The program will run for 16 weeks from mid-October through mid-February, 2014.

Thank You

By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Video Services Policy. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services.
You will also receive a complimentary subscription to the ZDNet's Tech Update Today and ZDNet Announcement newsletters. You may unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time.